Translate to multiple languages

Thursday, August 21, 2014

"No. 2 on our list of key ed-tech trends for the new school year is
the dramatic overhaul of the eRate, the nation’s school wiring program." continues eSchool News.

[Editor’s note: This is the fourth in a series of
stories examining five key ed-tech developments to watch for the 2014-15
school year. Our countdown continues tomorrow with No. 1.]

Last month, the Federal Communications Commission announced
the most significant changes to the eRate, the $2.4 billion-a-year
federal school connectivity program, in the program’s 17-year history.

The FCC’s new rules aim to transform the eRate from a telecommunications
program into a broadband program that supports the delivery of
high-speed internet service within schools. Photo: eSchool News

The eRate offers discounts ranging from 20 percent to 90 percent of
the cost of telecommunications services, internet access, and “internal
connections” (such as routers, switches, and Wi-Fi equipment) to
eligible schools and libraries.

Until now, internal connections have been designated as “Priority 2”
services and have been funded only after all requests for “Priority 1”
services (telecommunications services and internet access) were met.
However, that left most schools without any eRate funding for Wi-Fi
equipment and other internal connections.

The FCC’s new eRate rules
set aside $5 billion in funding over the next five years for the
internal connections needed to extend broadband access within schools
and libraries.

To spread this funding to the largest number of applicants possible, the agency has taken two key steps:
(1) It has limited the maximum discount on these services at 85
percent, and (2) it has placed a $150-per-student cap on the amount of
internal connections that schools can apply for within a five-year
period.

What’s more, the FCC has introduced a new category of service that is eligible for eRate support:managed Wi-Fi, or “managed internal broadband services” as the agency refers to it.

This change “will allow schools, for the first time, to leverage
eRate discounts to outsource major aspects of delivering on-campus
broadband connectivity,” said John Harrington, chief executive officer
of the eRate consulting firm Funds For Learning. He described this
approach as “analogous to a school cafeteria considering bids to manage
their kitchen and serve students meals.”

The FCC’s new rules aim to transform the eRate from a
telecommunications program into a broadband program that supports the
delivery of high-speed internet service within schools and libraries, in
order to meet President Obama’s “ConnectED” goal of delivering
broadband service to 99 percent of students within five years.

eSchool News is publishing a series of articles examining the
impact the new eRate rules will have on schools. You can look for these
articles on our home page every Tuesday through Sept. 9.Read more...

0
comments:

Contact me

About Me

Hello, my name is Helge Scherlund and I am the Education Editor and Online Educator of this personal weblog and the founder of eLearning • Computer-Mediated Communication Center.
I have an education in the teaching adults and adult learning from Roskilde University, with Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) and Human Resource Development (HRD) as specially studied subjects. I am the author of several articles and publications about the use of decision support tools, e-learning and computer-mediated communication. I am a member of The Danish Mathematical Society (DMF), The Danish Society for Theoretical Statistics (DSTS) and an individual member of the European Mathematical Society (EMS). Note: Comments published here are purely my own and do not reflect those of my current or future employers or other organizations.